Biomedical subjects

N Kawahata

Publications and source records attributed to N Kawahata.

32 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

PubMed1989

A case of associative visual agnosia: neuropsychological findings and theoretical considerations.

A 61-year-old right-handed man fell downstairs and was found unconscious. There was no abnormality in the general physical examinations. Neurological examinations revealed a quadrantanopia. Neuropsychological examination revealed an impairment in recent verbal memory, alexia, agraphia, object agnosia, color naming difficulty, prosopagnosia, and visuospatial constructional disability. CT scan demonstrated subcortical hematomas in the temporo-occipital regions of both hemispheres. MRI demonstrated extensive low-intensity lesions in the lingual, fusiform and posterior inferior temporal gyri on both hemispheres. Both inferior longitudinal fasciculi were also affected. His neuropsychological deficits seem best described as a typical form of associative visual agnosia. From the results of neuroradiological findings, the authors emphasize that associative visual agnosia might be produced by an intrahemispheric disconnection between the visual cortices and the temporal lobes which are supposed to be the storage site of the engrams of visual memories. Moreover, the neuropsychological findings suggest that the visuo-constructional ability to convert the two-dimensional input to the three-dimensional construction and the capacity of three-dimensional imagination were severely impaired in our patient. It was considered that these neuropsychological features play an important role in the recognition difficulties of associative visual agnosia.

Agnosia↗

PubMed1989

[Dynamics of atmospheric pressure under the maxillary complete denture. 1. Relations between the denture retention and the atmospheric pressure].

Dynamics of atmospheric pressure under the maxillary complete denture, and their relations with the denture retention influenced by the factors such as the denture seating force, the saliva viscosity and the postdamming, were investigated on the simulation models. The following results were obtained. 1. The atmospheric pressure under the denture became higher than the external one by the denture insertion, and increased during the denture seating, and decreased by the removing force of denture and furthermore became lower than external one by continuous application of its force, and at all became equal to the external one when the denture separated from the basal seat. 2. Greater seating force brought about greater positive pressure and less negative pressure. 3. Higher viscosity of saliva and the postdamming brought about greater positive and negative pressures. 4. Both of greater seating force and higher viscosity of saliva brought about greater retentive force. 5. The postdamming was useful for the maxillary posterior border seal. 6. The atmospheric pressure under the denture base seems not to relate directly to the maxillary denture retention in the static condition but to reveal the status of peripheral seal.

Atmospheric Pressure↗

PubMed1989

[A study of 75 untreated lung cancers in the elderly].

The records of 1280 patients autopsied at the Yokufukai Geriatric Hospital from October 1, 1973 to August 31, 1987 were reviewed and 75 patients with untreated lung cancer, aged 70 or older, were selected. The mean age and standard deviation was 82.1 +/- 5.4 years. Male consisted of 34 subjects and 41 were female of. Histological study revealed 42 cases of adenocarcinoma, 19 cases of squamous cell carcinoma, 7 cases of small cell carcinoma, 2 cases of large cell carcinoma, 1 case of carcinoid and 4 cases of the other types. The mean survival period of 44 untreated patients diagnosed as lung cancer during life was 21.1 +/- 24.1 months. The mean survival periods for 24 patients with adenocarcinoma and 11 patients with squamous cell carcinoma were 24.0 +/- 29.3 and 12.9 +/- 11.7 months, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference in the mean survival period of adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma. 9% of 44 untreated lung cancers survived for at least 5 years, although the survival rate was slightly lower than that generally reported in the literature. On the basis of staging of TNM classification at the autopsy, the mean survival period from the diagnosis for 13 patients with stage 1 and 27 patients with stage 4 were 27.5 +/- 33.3 and 18.5 +/- 19.7 months, respectively. The incidence of brain metastasis in 75 cases was 14.7%. In this study, adenocarcinoma was more predominant in the elderly (56.0%). An inverse relationship of age to stage was partially observed.

Adenocarcinoma↗

PubMed1989

[Metastatic brain tumor in the elderly].

Authors have reviewed 322 consecutive patients with malignant tumors confirmed by pathological studies between October 1973 and August 1987 in order to determine the frequency, clinical presentation, and lesion localization of metastatic brain tumor in the elderly. Among 322 patients with malignant tumor, 7 patients with primary brain tumor and 21 patients with metastatic brain tumors were found. The over-all frequency of metastases to the brain was 5.8%. This frequency of brain metastasis in the elderly was lower than those of the previous literature which have varied from 9 to 35%. The patients' ages with metastatic brain tumor ranged from 65 to 88 years with a median age of 77.5 years. The primary tumor sites of metastatic brain tumors were limited to 5 kinds of organs. These metastases were found in 27.3% of 11 patients with breast cancer, 17.5% of 80 patients with lung cancer, 6.7% of 15 patients with bile duct system cancer, 5.0% of 20 patients with pancreatic cancer, and 2.0% of 91 patients with gastric cancer. There was no brain metastasis in the other kinds of carcinoma. Among 21 metastatic brain tumors, there were 14 patients with lung cancer, 3 patients with breast cancer, 2 patients with gastric cancer, 1 patient with cholangiocarcinoma, and 1 patient with pancreatic cancer. In this series, the frequency of single and multiple metastases were 13 and 8 cases, respectively. The multiple brain metastases ranged from 2 to 6 nodules. In 21 metastatic brain tumors, there were 42 metastatic nodules in total.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Aged↗

PubMed1989

[Inverse ocular bobbing associated with cerebral embolism and diabetes insipidus--a case report].

Inverse ocular bobbing (IOB) is an uncommon abnormal eye movement. Its characteristics are slow downward eye movement with rapid upward return, a nadir at the extreme of downgaze position and horizontal roving eye movement. We present a case of IOB associated with cerebral embolism and diabetes insipidus. A 69 year-old right-handed woman was admitted because of a consciousness disturbance. She had been well until November 10, 1983, when she was found dysarthric and left hemiplegic. On admission, she was stuporous. There were conjugate deviation to the right, central left facial and hypoglossal palsy, left hemiplegia with spasticity, left hyperreflexia with positive pathologic reflex and anosognosia. A CT scan performed on November 11 showed extensive hypodense area in the region supplied by the right middle cerebral artery. A right carotid angiography revealed multiple occlusions in the top of the right internal carotid artery with poor collateral circulation. After admission, the level of consciousness gradually deteriorated and became comatose on November 18, when the following abnormal eye movements were observed. Following spontaneous horizontal roving eye movement, both eyes deviated downward slowly from midposition, taking 1 to 2 seconds to reach the nadir. The eyes then remained in the position for 1 to 15 seconds, followed by a rapid return to the midposition. These abnormal eye movements are compatible with inverse ocular bobbing (IOB) described by Knobler. Electronystagmography detected typical IOB and spontaneous upward nystagmus. There was no evidence of hypoxia when these abnormal eye movements were present.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Aged↗

PubMed1988

Alexia with agraphia due to the left posterior inferior temporal lobe lesion--neuropsychological analysis and its pathogenetic mechanisms.

We report three cases of alexia with agraphia due to the left posterior inferior temporal lesions. In Case 1, the reading disability was more prominent in the use of Kana than in the use of Kanji, which is similar to previously reported cases of alexia with agraphia due to angular gyrus lesion. In Cases 2 and 3, by contrast, the reading disability was more prominent in the use of Kanji than in the use of Kana. In spontaneous writing and dictation, the disability was more pronounced in the use of Kanji compared with the use of Kana. In each of the three cases, the CT scan and positron emission tomography showed a localized lesion in the lower part of the left posterior temporal lobe. A typical form of an alexia with agraphia could be caused not only by the left angular lesion but also by the left posterior inferior temporal lesion. We discuss the neuropsychological analysis and pathogenetic mechanisms of alexia with agraphia due to the left posterior inferior temporal lesion in the comparison of alexia with agraphia caused by the left angular lesion.

Aged↗

PubMed1988

[Associative visual agnosia--a case report].

A 61 year-old right-handed man, a president of a company fell downstairs and was found unconscious on January 1, 1985. He was admitted to a hospital and he had been unresponsive for 10 days. As he recovered from the consciousness disturbance, he complained of difficulties in discrimination of common objects and in recognition of familiar faces. The patient was admitted to our hospital for the closer examination on July 29, 1985. There was no abnormality in the general physical examination on admission. Neurological examinations revealed no significant deficits except visual field disturbance. In the results of WAIS, the verbal IQ was 108, but the performance IQ was unmeasurable because of a presence of object agnosia. His spontaneous speech was fluent without paraphasia, perseveration or dysprosody. His auditory comprehension of spoken language and repetition were spared. Neuropsychological examinations revealed an impairment in the recent verbal memory, alexia, agraphia, object agnosia, color naming difficulty, prosopagnosia and visuospatial constructional disability. The patient exhibited three major neuropsychological characteristics. Firstly, the recognition of the objects which were presented by the photograph or line drawing was more severely impaired than the real objects. Secondly, the object naming difficulty was more pronounced in the presentation at an unusual angle than in the free presentation. Thirdly, the patient made poor performance in reproduction of the models by photographic presentation as compared with the presentation of the real models in the three-dimensional block construction test. The CT scan performed on January 4, 1985 demonstrated subcortical hematomas with surrounding edema in the temporo-occipital regions of both hemispheres.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Agnosia↗

PubMed1987